Various advances electronic instrument display systems and in particular Electronic Flight Information Systems (EFIS), have been implemented to make the difficult task of interpreting the operational status of commercial aircraft easier for pilots. Generally flight display systems include a primary flight display (PFD) installed in front of the left seat pilot position and a multi-function display (MFD) positioned centrally relative to the instrument panel. While the layout of the PFD may vary considerably depending on the manufacturer and the default or preferred settings which alter the arrangement of the various instruments displayed, the PFD typically includes a centrally positioned attitude indicator, airspeed indicator, altitude indicators, a vertical speed indicator next to the altitude indicator, and a heading display showing the magnetic heading of the aircraft. The attitude indicator is the most relied on by the pilot especially in low visibility conditions, or instrument flying and reflects the pitch (fore and aft tilt) and the roll (side to side tilt) of the aircraft. While modern attitude indicators typically have a chevron symbol representing the aircraft in relationship to an artificial horizon line in which the upward point of the chevron represents the nose of the aircraft, other various shapes representing the aircraft are also used.
According to the NTSB, between 1997 and 2006, 22.6% of all aircraft accidents occurred during takeoff and 35.4% while landing; both situations in which the aircraft is substantially more exposed to engine problems or weather problems such as wind shear, than at most other times in the flight. As recognized by those skilled in the art, lift induced drag and ground effects appear to be contributing factors in many of these accidents.
Specific lift inducing and drag inducing elements are employed during takeoff and landing which together comprise what is known to those skilled in the art as the configuration. The configuration elements of a modern aircraft can include the flaps which are hinged surfaces on the trailing edge of the fixed wings that are deployed to reduce the stalling speed, the slats which are positioned at the leading edge of the fixed wings and when deployed allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack, the landing gear, the spoilers which are plates on the top surface of the wings which are extended upward into the airflow to reduce lift, and the reverse thrusters which temporarily redirect a jet engine's exhaust forward to decelerate the aircraft on landing.
The misapprehension of the configuration status, and in particular the position of the spoilers figures in a number of recent accidents. While on most modern transport craft ground spoilers extend automatically upon touchdown, any failure to deploy spoilers in a timely fashion may result in accidents.
On Jun. 1, 1999 American Airlines Flight 1420 overran the runway at Little Rock National Airport. The NTSB investigation found that the pilots failed to arm the automatic ground spoiler system.
On Jul. 17, 2007 TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crashed upon landing at the Congonhas-Sao Paulo International Airport, São Paulo, Brazil. It was revealed that the spoilers had not deployed and that only one engine had deployed its thrust reverser causing the aircraft to careen off the run way.
In some cases, failure to deactivate the spoilers when accelerating has caused accidents. For example, failure to deactivate the spoilers while climbing to avoid a mountain contributed to the crash of American Airlines Flight 965 on Dec. 20, 1995.
Due to the criticality of understanding a piloted craft's instant configuration, what is needed is a display system that integrates symbols representative of the piloted craft's configuration elements immediately within the bounds of an attitude indicator, and specifically within the borders of—or proximate to—the symbol for a piloted craft which is centrally displayed within the attitude indicator so a pilot may obtain the current configuration of the piloted craft from the single most relied on indicator.